Kurt Elling Quotes
-
Grammy nominations are certainly pleasant, but you can forget about them and lead a perfectly happy life - provided you have the approval of the musicians you work with.
-
There is an actor's responsibility in presenting the emotional content of the lyrics to an audience. But whether you do that in a straightforward fashion or an ironic fashion or a blase fashion is all about opportunities, and singers are missing opportunities as artists if they don't pay attention to the lyric.
-
Chicago has a burly, action-oriented but still self-assured and relaxed confidence to its stride. The city has a lot of wide-open space and all the possibilities that suggests. There's a lot of horizontal grandeur here.
-
It's pretty rare in jazz to have a full-on steady band.
-
I'm a goof, man.
-
I've worked with a number of big bands, but there's nothing in life like the Basie band.
-
You want to be doing your best work whatever field of the arts you're in because your life's going to be over all too soon, and you have to make the most of it.
-
I didn't arrive on the scene until after Jaco Pastorius had passed, but 'Three Views of a Secret' is a long-time favourite of mine.
-
I'm thrilled when I hear the greatest jazz musicians. They continue to search in ways other musicians do not.
-
I try to sleep as much as I can. I drink a lot of water. I practice consistently and just try to be ready for the gig.
-
There's a wide spectrum of possibilities in how to deliver a song.
-
I haven't been afraid of John Coltrane or Miles Davis or Bill Evans or Wayne Shorter or Herbie Hancock. Why would I be afraid of the Beatles?
-
I've tried to educate myself in the world and what's beautiful and what has meaning and is lasting. Then I just follow my intuition and see how it fits.
-
Salacious? I suppose every once in a while the salacious thing is not a bad thing. It's kind of monochromatic if that's all you do.
-
Every record is a gate of a certain kind for me.
-
As improvisers, we're acting as composers in front of people.
-
I know how hard it's been for me to get my thing out there.
-
Part of my joy as a singer is to give gifts to people, and one way I try to connect to them is to add something in French or German or whatever.
-
The great jazz and jazz-influenced singers carry themselves with a certain panache and a certain elegance and, for lack of a better word, self-confidence.
-
I was very lucky that more experienced musicians allowed me to caterwaul until I figured out what it was really about.
-
Karl Johnson, my first piano player at Milt Trenier's, he just swung really hard and gave me a sense of really belonging to the jazz scene.
-
I hope that I'm also maturing emotionally as a human being as things go on.
-
There's a spiritual complement to any attempt at transposing a commitment to humanity through music or art.
-
I couldn't do what I do without the encouragement and influence of the musicians I played with in Chicago.